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Topic: First baby swiss (Read 4026 times)

Following Sailor's/Peter's recipe and reading what Boofer and Al have done for my reference.

It's currently sitting in the first press - under whey. Doing the in-whey as I'm a bit nervous that the chunks from the in-pot 15 min under weight might make it hard to knit. Me no likey mechanical holes. Me want bacteria flatulence holes.

Everything went by the recipe. I'm starting to get a bit happier with my curd cutting skills (finally - practice makes for more practice) to go along with my computer hacking skills and ....

I'll update with more pics and notes later.

One glaring question to the Baby Swiss experts: Would it be more reasonable to press under whey in the hoop for the first 1/2 weight press than to do the in the pot w/whey press in a mass? My logical thinking says I might get a better knit without having to break it up again or am I missing something here critical to the process. I can see where this would be great for commercial setups with lots of mass and you can cut squares/rounds to go right into a mold.

Update: Doing it naked now whoohoo! I don't think it will have Boofer nubs though - his are one of a kind ;-) The knit looks good but its not done yet. Methinks I'm going to do the last flip in an hour and let press whats left of tonight. Whey brine is ready and in the cave to even out its temp.

Cozy Cow is the only Colorado Grade A (small) dairy that I have found that vat pasteurizes using the lowest temps possible/legal. If she can make great cheese with her milk then I expect I have a chance then. It is a drive but I think it is worth it. I tend to get 8 to 12 gallons of non-H at a time.

I would like to try Morning Fresh's cream top someday - but they heat to 172degF and from what I've been reading, that temp can cause damage to proteins and whatnot. I'm also having a hard time trying to get my local grocery to order enough to make it worth it. I really don't want to buy what has been sitting on the shelf for who knows how long.

IMHO Cozy Cow is more cheesemaker friendly. Good news for the future - CCD will be converting to Jersey RSN.

I've thought about trying to gather a few local makers and make communal trips to CCD - sort of a buying club. We would have to call way in advance for product though. You can't get much fresher than that unless you milked your own.

Off to the brine. I seemed to get more wrinkles using the plyban than the nylon mesh fabric. The surface is smoother than what I get with nylon but I need to figure out how to fold the plyban and maybe cut it down more so there are less folds to make.

Well if I follow the forum (mostly Sailor's notes) I'm going brine somewhere close to 6 hours (done), let it rest a tad in the cave (done) and flip it daily without extra salt - and move to the warming phase with flips (doing that now) with no extra salt. The more I read, the more I think too much salt is the axe that kills off PC development. I'm going to only brush off any aliens that happen to grow on the rind from now until vac packing with brine - however it will be a sponge bath, not a shower.

For the warming phase, I've got it in a tub that isn't air tight and off the bottom on egg crate/mat and there is a bit of RO water in the bottom to keep the RH up a bit. If the rind seems to be drying up too much I might wipe a bit more brine when I flip and/or add a bit of oil as Sailor tried. We must keep the baby's tookus soft and supple so it can pass gas freely!

yes salt will halt ps growth, and so will a number of other factors such as too much acid .however, the salt absorbed through the rind is very slight.for limiting folds, the best approach is to flip the cheese often, removing the clotyh each time. Swiss cheesemakers will flip something like 6 times, depending on the cheese.

I know what you mean about the wrinkles from Plyban! Sheesh! it's so stiff and hard to work with. I don't use it any more except for a small piece between the cheese and follower when pressing....that's how I avoid all the fold lines at the top; I leave all the cheesecloth edges hanging over the edge while I put the square of plyban and follower in place. Then I bring up the cheesecloth edges and arrange around the top.

Speaking of techniques, I think it would be fun to have videos of how various people flip their softer cheeses during the pressing regimen. Sometimes they are so soft they have my hand imprint on them just from a few seconds of resting on my hand! Of course it goes away but some of those babies have been pretty floppy the first few flips!